Surprise calendars



Dec. l, 1959 P, sMlTH EI'AL SURPRISE CALENDARS Filed oct. 16, 1957 I /IO TA's sURPR-ISE RIST MAS ALENDAR sA C A PRIZE A DAY ITIL. XMAS .INVENTORS PAUL SMITH ARTHUR d SM/TH United States Patent "O 2,914,871 SURPRISE CALENDARS Paul smith, Detroit, and Arthur J. smith, Grosse Pointe, Mich.

Application october 16, 1951, serial No. 690,556L 1 claim. (ci. 411-107) and to give the individual packages to the recipient upon the occurrence of the given calendar period. This requires frequent purchases of the objects involved and individual packaging thereof and, thus, has been so bothersome as to make it impractical for the usual situations where such procedure might otherwise be employed.

`For example, it is well understood that in the periods preceding a birthday or Christmas, the desire for the expected presents becomes very great and may cause the person to become over-excited to place too much importance upon the receiving of numerous presents on the particular holiday. "Further, when all of the presents are received at one time, in many instances, the person is completely overwhelmed and may not derive the full benefit from the presents. Thus, it may be desirable to given presents during some period preceding a birthday A or Christmas in order to relieve some of the tension which may otherwise build up while awaiting a particular day.I

A further situation where the reception of new giftsor suprises might have a beneficial effect on the behavior of a child is where such child is confined to bed or to the house because of sickness. A child confined to a house or tohis bed soon becomes bored and hard. to control unless special efforts are made in order to minimize boredom of the child. Such boredom can be substantially minimized by providing the child with new toys or gifts at frequent intervals until he is well. A continuing supply of new toys lfor the child not only creates interest of the child in the new toys received but also stimulatesa sense of expectation of the gifts or suprises that will be received in the near future. Thus, in order to alleviate boredom, stimulate the interest and provide sorne pleasant memories of his confinement, it is beneficial to provide a sick child with new toys or prizes frequently during his illness. Likewise, on trips ,involving children, surprise packages are often prepared vide a novelty calendarconstruction which will, upon the happening of selected and successively occurring events, provide to children or others a source of toys, prizes or other objects as desired.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a novelty calendar construction, as aforesaid, particularly adapted for supplying toys or prizes to a child.

it is a further object of this invention to provide a novelty calendar construction, as aforesaid, wherein periodic reception of toys and prizes becomes like a game to the child and can be utilized to encourage his good behavior.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a novelty calendar construction, as aforesaid, which may be manipulated by the person so that he may obtain the toys or prizes from the calendar constmction without help and will thus encourage his participation and interest in the reception of such surprizes or objects.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a novelty calendar construction, as aforesaid, which is particularly useful for-supplying toys or prizes to children during the periods preceding birthdays, special events, Christmas or during a period of sickness.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a novelty calendar construction, as aforesaid, which is inexpensive to manufacture and which may be supplied with inexpensive toys or prizes.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a novelty calendar construction, as aforesaid, in which the toys or prizes received periodically may be so arranged that, at the end of the particular period for which the calendar is set up, a complete set of coordinated toys will have been received by the child, which toys can be used afterwards by the child as desired.

it is a further object of this invention to provide a novelty calendar construction, as aforesaid, which fa- Figure 3 is a front view of the device with the cover removed. l

Referring to Figures l, 2 and 3 of the drawings, there is disclosed a novelty calendar construction 10 which includes a rectangular box 11 having side walls 12 and a bottom wall 13. The front or top of the box is open. A divider structure 14 is positioned within the box and divides same into a plurality ofcompartments A. The divider structure in this construction includes a plurality of partitions 16 extending at right angles to each other and to the back and side walls of the box. The divider structure 12 may be integral with the box or it may, as shown in this embodiment of the invention, be loosely received within said box. The box and the divider structure may be formed of paperboard or other similar, inexpensive, relatively rigid, durable material.

A cover 17 fits over the open end of the box. The cover includes side walls 18 which telescope over the corresponding side Walls 12 of the box and includes a peripheral frame 19 overlying the periphery of the open end of the box. A panel 20 is integral with the peripheral frame and extends away therefrom. The panel is Patented Dec. l, 1959.

3 frame 19 and panel 20 of the cover 17. The sheet includes a portion overlying panel 20 and this portion of the sheet may be printed to provide the desired ornamental and descriptive material. The sheet further extends across, and. closes, the space defined by the peripheral frame 19. Further, the sheet is adapted to overlie the open ends of the compartments A and, thus, when the cover is mounted upon the box, closes the open ends of such compartments. The sheet is perforated to provide a detachable closure section 23 in front of each compartment A. Desirably, the sheet is so perforated that each closure section has an integral tab 24 which may be readily grasped by the user so that the closure section for only one compartment may be readily torn from the remainder of the sheet. Each of the closure sections is provided with indicia corresponding to the selected calendar interval, such as a single day, or other event as desired. Thus, in the disclosed embodiment, the divider structure 12 provides twenty-five compartments A within the box and the sheet 21 is perforated to provide twentyve closure sections 23. The indicia on such closure sections are arranged to correspond to successive days in the period between December 1st and December 25th.

In use, each of the compartments A will be supplied with a toy, prize, or similar object and the cover will be placed thereon. On each successive day, the child or other recipient of the articles within the box, will pull the tab 24'on the closure section bearing the indicia for that particular day yto remove such closure section from the remainder of the sheet. the compartment and the recipient may then reach in to obtain the toy or prize within such compartment. Thus, each day the recipient will remove the respective closure section for that day and will receive the particular toy or prize within such compartment.

Thus, the calendar construction disclosed above encourages participation of the child or other recipient in the reception of the goods, and, in many instances, this participation becomes a game which is as enjoyable as the actual reception of the toys or prizes themselves. Further, the participation of the child in the game and the reception of the toys or prizes therefrom can be conditioned upon good behavior, which is of particular importance during the period preceding his birthday or Christmas or during the period in which he is conined to his bed or the house due to illness.

Similarly, the device disclosed above provides a daily supply of new toys and, thus, reduces boredom of the child and creates in the child a sense of expectation and wonderment as to what new toys will be received on succeeding days. If desired, the toys actually utilized in the box may be selected by the parents at whatever expense level is desired, or they may, in some instances, be toys which the parents have previously removed from the childs playthings and now wish to reintroduce to the child.

Further, where a matched set of toys is being given to This will reveal the contents of the child, the technique of introducing the child to the toys by daily reception thereof will tend to keep the child wondering which toy in the set he will receive next and where such toy will t in with those which he has already received. Thus, each day the child will receive a new toy of the set, which will suggest to the child new ways in which the toys already received can be utilized and, further, when the complete set has been received, the child will then have a substantial number of toys of matching characteristics as desired.

A further advantage of the prefeired embodiment of the invention is that the child will become familiar with the calendar, the identification of days and the arrangement thereof in weeks, months, etc. In this connection, it should be pointed out that the arrangement of the calendar can be widely varied so as to simulate an actual calendar or to provide some other type of arrangement, as may be desired or required. Further, the sizes of the respective compartments may -be varied to provide space for larger or more objects to be received on selected days, such as by providing a larger compartment for the birthday or Christmas.

Although a particular, preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed herein, Ithis invention contemplates such changes or modifications thereof as lie within the scope of the appended claim.

We clairn:

In a calendar construction, the combination comprising: a rectangular box having side walls, a rear end wall and an open front; a divider structure within said box and dividing said box into a plurality of compartments, said compartments being of substantial depth and having open front ends adapted to receive objects therein; a calendar sheet supporting means for said box, said means including a rigid peripheral frame overlying the front and sides of said box, telescoped thereover and extending thereabove; a calendar sheet secured to the front side of said means and extending across the space delined by said peripheral frame, said calendar sheet overlying the open ends of said compartments and bearing indicia corresponding to calendar periods or selected successively occurring events, each indicia for a given period overlying the open end of one of said compartments; and means deining a line of severance around each of the indicia on said calendar sheet so that a poition of the sheet in front of each compartment may be removed without disturbing any adjacent portion of said sheet and so that objects within each of said compartments may be successively exposed.

References Cited in the ile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 860,357 Dianient July 16, 1907 1,230,242 Von Unruh June 19, 1917 1,906,261 Glass May 2, 1933 2,440,062 Allen Apr. 20, 1948 

